Dr. Fred Battenfield

Head Coach

A long-time volleyball enthusiast, Dr. Battenfield's background includes working at the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympic Games volleyball competitions. He was the producer for Olympic volleyball at the ’96 Games in Atlanta; press attaché for the U.S.A. volleyball teams in ’88 in Seoul, Korea, and served as assistant press venue chief for volleyball in ’84 in Los Angeles. He is a former national volleyball referee, and coached men’s and women’s college volleyball at UT San Antonio among his various volleyball pursuits.

In addition to the Olympics, he has participated in numerous national and international sporting events, including the World Cup, Olympic qualifying events and has also been a television and radio commentator.

Battenfield earned a Ph.D. degree in sport management at Florida State University in August, 2004 and his dissertation is entitled “An Ethnographic Study of the Culture of Communication in the Sports Information Office in a Division I-A Athletic Program.” His research interests include the culture of communication in college sports, sports public relations and media, qualitative inquiry in sport management, ambush marketing in the Olympic Games and communication and marketing in intercollegiate athletics.

Prior to returning to graduate school, Dr. Battenfield spent 22 years as a college sports information director. He was assistant athletic director for community relations at Barry University in Miami Shores, FL, and previously served as sports information director at Rollins College (Winter Park, FL) and The University of Texas at San Antonio. He was assistant SID at Texas A&amp;M University and The University of Texas at Austin. As an SID, he won 18 national publications awards from the College Sports Information Directors of America.

He earned his Master’s degree at the United States Sports Academy, a Bachelor of Journalism degree from The University of Texas at Austin, and an Associate’s Degree from Yavapai (AZ) College.

Dr. Battenfield has published several scholarly articles regarding his research in sport communication and marketing. His most recent publication was “The Culture of Communication Among Sport Information Professionals” in the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing. He has also presented his research at NASSM, the Sport Marketing Association Conference, and the International Conference on Sport &amp; Entertainment.

He currently resides in Greer, SC with his wife Katie and daughter Julianna and son Robby.